After the first 8 minutes, Ryan Jordan dives into the TRIPS demo, so you’ll want to see the video version of this podcast.
Timeline
00:00 Intro
01:00 Three compliments
07:40 TRIPS Basic
18:00 TRIPS Pro
33:55 Price
Background
I’m a lifetime member of Backpacking Light (BPL), and I’m excited to use TRIPS.
In the show, I mention Ryan’s epic Arctic 1000 trek. His PDF summary of the journey is still a fantastic read decades later.
Podcast summary
We primarily discuss TRIPS, a new backcountry-planning application that converts a GPX route into a detailed estimate of how difficult a backpacking trip will be. The tool incorporates factors such as route geometry, elevation, campsites, pack weight, and the hiker’s physiology.
Before discussing the app in depth, I congratulate Jordan on two achievements:
* BackpackingLight’s paid membership model: I admit I once doubted that backpackers would pay for online information, but Jordan proved me wrong by building a successful subscription-based website. Jordan explains that the key is offering enough value for people to invest in their passions.
* The Arctic 1000 expedition: I recall Jordan’s earlier ultralight expedition in Alaska, involving three men attempting to travel approximately 1,000 kilometers—about 622 miles—without resupply. They used Alaska’s continuous summer daylight strategically, hiking during the “night” and sleeping during the day to reduce the amount of cold-weather gear they needed to carry.
The episode’s central theme is the movement from relying on intuition and experience in trip planning toward using data, physiology, route analysis, and equipment weight to model the actual demands of a wilderness journey.
What do you think?
Put your thoughts in the comments.
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